Plaque 8

John Cockshott, 88 Main Street

Awarded a Blue Plaque in 2022

Nos. 88-94 Main Street form part of a longer row of south facing terrace properties – Nos. 88 and 90 were built in 1748 with 92 and 94 possibly built around 1790. The houses are important as the earliest of many buildings in Addingham erected for the Cockshott family of entrepreneurs. John Cockshott (1706-1785) was a grocer who began a series of enterprises in the cotton and wool industries, mostly to do with hand-loom weaving. The Cockshott family were instrumental in building, amongst other things, the Piece Hall, the Large Loomshop on Chapel Street, The Rookery in Bolton Road and Low Mill.

The row in 1971. No.88 was restored in 2018

To the west this row originally extended to the corner of Chapel Street, but part of it was demolished when Nos. 84 and 86 were rebuilt as a three storey block, with two shops on the ground floor (latterly No. 84 was a grocers and No. 86 was Lloyds Bank). The only 18th Century features that remain in these properties are the plinth courses and two doorways. At the rear of the older properties there is evidence of a series of taking-in doors, originally with projecting beams and pulleys to allow goods to be hoisted to first floor level where weaving would have taken place with communicating doors which connected Nos. 88, 90, and 92.

Nos. 92 and 94 were combined as one house in about 1990 which explains the removal of the front entrance of 94. They are now separated again but No. 94 still has no front door. The buildings on the opposite side of Main Street were originally the garden belonging to No. 88 where John Cockshott and his family lived. This was occupied by Mr & Mrs Hudson from the late 1920s /30 until 1960. Pierce Electrical made it into a shop in the 1960's but it reverted to residential accommodation in the early 1970's, the modern door to the left of No. 88 was the access to the shop’s living accommodation.

No. 90 retained several fittings characteristic of Victorian times such as an iron fireplace and an iron kitchen range (see photos below).

Original fireplaces in 90, Main St.